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Spooky Prints + Tutorial

Carol, a woman in my watercolor class, mentioned in class last week about making prints from styrofoam. GENIUS. It’s not nearly as painstaking (or dangerous) as linoleum block prints. It stuck with me, and a woman in my church asked me if I had any ideas for a school class activity for a Halloween party, well here you go, Wendy. Hope this works out!!

Styrofoam Printing

In a nutshell, here’s what you need:

Pencil

Styrofoam plates

Scissors

Bone folder or tongue depressor

Brayer

Printing ink (any color)

Paper (not pictured)

Newsprint (to manage the mess)

Cut the bottom of the plate out. I chose a circle, it’s easy. You can cut any shape you want.

Draw on the surface of the Styrofoam with a pencil. After you’re done with outlines you can depress large spaces (these spaces will end up white) with a bonefolder or tongue depressor.

Squirt ink on a “throw away” sheet of paper to get your brayer evenly coated with ink. Roll ink over the surface of your print. Be sure not to press too hard or you’ll ink up your white spaces.

Apply the paper face down onto your “plate”. With the palm of your hand or side of your fist, rub the back side of the paper to transfer the ink. Remove the paper.

[…] if I could get any inspiration that way & came across a tutorial I did a couple years ago on how to make limited edition prints by using a styrofoam plate. It’s a super easy & very fun process. I got all excited to make a greeting card or […]

This is cool! I am in a print class now and I love printing with linoleum. But this is a cheaper way to get sort of the same results!! I really don’t like styrofoam but if I know I will keep it perhaps I shall buy a small pack.

[…] Last weekend we had a neighborhood party & I was in charge of coming up with an activity to do with the older elementary aged kids that were going. We had a fish pond with prizes for the little ones (the older ones could participate, too) so I thought I’d do something that could apply to both the young & the older kids: styrofoam printmaking. […]